IF you turn to the sixth chapter of Luke’s gospel, and the 47th verse, you will find these words, said by God’s only begotten Son, when He was upon this earth:—
“Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.”
I want now to tell you of a young man who at a very late hour, an hour of need, found this blessed immoveable Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the son of a godly father—so, no doubt, from childhood he had often heard words whereby he could have been saved. But he saw no beauty in Christ to desire Him. Is it so with you who are reading this? The word of God says: The wrath of God abides on those who believe not on His Son. (John 3:36).
When this young man grew up Satan filled his mind with false thoughts of God, and he tried to think that he believed in nothing but the present. This lasted for some little time. But the tender loving One who came down all the way from that glorious scene where He dwelt with His Father, to shed His blood for sinners, had His eye on this lost soul. He wanted him, and God who “so loved the world” loved him—so He took away what, most likely, the young man valued more than anything he possessed, and that was his health.
When he saw life going—and only a dark, endless future before his eyes—do you think he felt any comfort in having refused the precious gift of God? Oh, no! All he saw was black—he was afraid to face eternity.
His poor father was broken hearted, but he knew that there was still the word of God which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword; and though his son was too ill to read it himself, yet he remembered that “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:17).
The father and sisters therefore assembled around the bedside; each one repeater the simplest gospel texts that they could think of; and God owned their faith in His word For some time the young man seemed hardly to take in the meaning of what was being said—when suddenly he started up it the bed, and, fixing his eyes on the ceiling of the room, exclaimed, his face beaming with joy—
“I see it all! Jesus stands before God and I can hide behind Him!”
Oh! what a perfect One in whom to hide! Are you hidden safe in this Rock? Nothing can shake you from it. “What think ye a Christ?”
If the god of this world, who is a liar and murderer from the beginning, has blinded your mind lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine into it, let me tell you there is One who seeks for your heart.
“With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.”
“My son, give Me thine heart.”
Y.